BBC documentary 'The Modi Question': Another salvo of bias, hateful propaganda and colonial hangover

As I am writing this article on BBC’s recent documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Western media’s anti-India campaign, repeatedly accusing New Delhi of discriminating against minorities, particularly threatening the existence of Muslims, and its eroding democracy, my mind is smoothly drifted to the rhythmic and mellifluous crescendos and decrescendos of a Sufi Qawwali, Mast nazro se Allah bachaye, being played in a nearby mosque and amplified on a loudspeaker at 12:30 am, piercing the eerie silence of the night, in a densely populated Hindu colony full of Rajputs, Jats, Brahmins and Baniyas, with most of them being hardcore BJP supporters. Five times a day, I hear Azaan on the loudspeakers of mosque frequented by Barelvi Muslims. And, well the shocker is that this is happening in remote and laid-back Udaipur city where a few months back i.e., in June 2022, a local tailor was brutally murdered in an ISIS-styled beheading by the local Muslims, reportedly acting in cahoots with their handlers in Pakistan. Also, this city, one of the strongest BJP fortresses witnessed the largest protest with hateful slogans calling for violence, against the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. However, these hardcore BJP supporters, with some of them holding the membership of RSS, the new icon of Islamo-fascism as defined by several western mainstream media portals and Islamist-terrorist groups alike, simply organised a peaceful protest march against Kanhaiya’s brutal murder and the life was normal, the next day. Not a single Muslim was killed or even thrashed. Yet, BBC and the mainstream Western media calls India a hotbed of Hindutva extremism and a hell-hole for Muslims. And, this, let me be very upfront, irritates Indians of all hues and colour, barring a minuscule bunch of left-oriented intellectuals, journalists and activists. BBC’s recent documentary “ The Modi Question ”, condemned by the Ministry of External affairs as a “propaganda piece designed to push a discredited narrative” lacking objectivity and reflective of “continuing colonial mindset” is another salvo of hatred against India from the weaponized media and academia, in a series, which essentially goes 250 years back, beginning with the Macaulay’s famous minutes on education. Had this merely been a perception or an opinion by a select group of scholars, it would have been fine; however, the majority of Indian masses and intellectuals, alike perceive it as vile propaganda. Dissecting the BBC documentary Though the allegations made by the BBC documentary have already been done and dusted by India’s Supreme Court in a series of judgements, hearings and SIT, the latest and the final one being the 2022 Supreme Court judgement acquitting Prime Minister Modi of any complicity in the Gujarat riots of 2001 making it a futile exercise to counter them, critical review of the documentary’s research method is imperative. Firstly, the documentary comes out as a one-sided portrayal of atrocities against the Muslim community, overwhelmingly biased in the favour of Muslims projected as the victim community. Even a cursory glance at the facts shows that in Gujarat riots about 700 Muslims and 300 Hindus died; hence no reason to call it a Muslim pogrom. BBC could have maintained a modicum of objectivity at least by not making such blatantly anti-Hindu statements that the causes of the alighting the Hindu pilgrims’ train in Godhara are “disputed and the Muslims were blamed.” The way Hindu imagery, slogans and symbols of purely religious nature, have been used in the documentary makes it amply clear that the work has a strong imprint of Islamist, anti-India leftist and Pakistani lobbies, staffers and influencers and the elements of the western deep-state. It is quite understandable given the strengthening influence of the Islamist organisations and heavy weights in the British society and the state. The recent report on the “ Prevent” categorically says that while defining the right wing extremism, Prevent has been very vague and liberal; however, in case of the Islamist extremism and terrorism, its ambit has been extremely narrow. At best, the documentary comes out as an emotive propaganda piece deliberately created with an ulterior agenda to serve the interests of the real actors operating from the shadows. It can be anything, but a “rigorously researched” work as claimed by the BBC. Quoting an anonymous diplomat giving the death count of 2000 and referring to some shady meeting between the CM Modi and the police officers, where he allegedly asked them to desist from performing their duty, are indeed poor and weak research practices. Interestingly, the documentary makes some claims which defy common sense and also show that the home work was extremely poor. The directors have named Haren Pandya, the deceased politician and former Home Minister of Gujarat as the source who revealed what transpired in that meeting, blaming Modi for the Gujarat carnage. It is worth mentioning that any lay observer with some grassroots knowledge of Gujarat would know that in public perception Haren Pandya was known as a fire brand Hindutva leader vis-à-vis Modi’s image of a moderate and shrewd administrator and politician. Secondly, Haren Pandya had personal differences with Modi; hence, on what grounds his testimony, if at all the BBC’s story of the fictious meeting has some grain of truth, can be accepted as a truth. Majority of the individuals quoted in the documentary are Jesuit missionaries alleged of running conversion drives, journalist and activists with ideological hangovers, temperamental biases and dubious links with political opposition and anti-India international forces. Ideologically, they are predisposed against Hindutva, RSS and BJP and have a history of being harshly critical of Modi and India since 2014. Notably, Teesta Setlvad depicted as a human rights worker fighting for the riot victims, was allegedly getting finding from the central government. Notably, RB Shreekumar , former IPS officer and an interviewee in the documentary, has a tainted history of allegations of framing a reputed ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in a fake espionage case and torturing him in the custody.  Hence, their testimony cannot be taken as a fact based on evidence. The makers have not brought a single well-researched academic source to the entire documentary. After watching the documentary, one question comes to mind: how could the anti-Modi Congress government and the judiciary fail to prove Modi’s involvement despite more than a decade of serious efforts by skilled investigators? And BBC with its team of a few journalists without adequate knowledge of the local culture, languages and social setting, collect concrete evidence of such high quality that even the British foreign secretary Jack Straw could rely on it. Also, BBC, with a single-minded agenda of blaming Prime Minister Modi fails to mention, and quite understandably so, that then chief minister Modi had asked the neighbouring chief minister Digvijaya Singh of a Congress-run state, for police reinforcements because the situation was escalating beyond the control of local police, and the latter refused to offer any help. Additionally, the documentary could have done some face-saver by at least showing the historical and socio-political context i.e., long history of Gujarat’s Hindu-Muslim communal riots, forced conversions, temple demolitions and Muslim rulers’ atrocities since the plundering of Somnath temple leaving a deep distrust and angst in Hindu sub-conscious, and petrol-bomb attacks and stone-pelting by the local Muslims on the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra of Ahmedabad. It is so because it could have blunted the sharp anti-India edges and might have annoyed the Islamist lobbies. It is also pertinent to mention here that as a scholar and researcher whenever I have tried to keep the identities of my sources hidden in my articles and papers on Kashmir militancy, the Western academic journals have mercilessly rejected my papers. In one of the papers written on the post-370 situation in Kashmir, discussing the administration’s efficient handling that prevented violence was categorically rejected by many Indian and foreign tools of weaponised academia masquerading as peer-reviewed journals. Their editors explicitly told me that I cannot criticise Turkey for its role in radicalisation. Also, they were upset because the paper did not have imaginary gory accounts of the post-370 large-scale violence and atrocities perpetrated by the security forces. Western Media-Academia’s Cliched Notions and Constricted Understanding of India As correctly stated by India’s former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal and India’s MEA that the documentary essentially reflects a continuing colonial mindset synonymous with an inherent sense of entitlement to monitor and preach India on human rights, democracy and minority rights even 75 years after its formal dissociation from the British imperial rule. The problem with the West essentially continues to be the same i.e., historically hostile predisposition towards non-westernised Sanatan Bharat. The process began right after the British conquest of India manifesting itself in the denigration and distortion of India’s history, civilisational legacy, values, Sanatan religious and spiritual thoughts and institutions, mythology, governance and statecraft-related theories, customs and practices, and the scientific and technological advancements of ancient Indians. All that came as a corollary to white men’s burden of civilising the oriental society. Macaulay’s famous education minutes clearly mention that the purpose of British education policy was to create of generation of westernised Indian clerks bereft of critical thinking and with a low self-esteem vis-à-vis their indigenous cultural roots. Even after India’s Independence in 1947, the bias continued against India in the mainstream western media, cinema and academia, and India continued to be seen as the land of snake charmers. India’s non-alignment never sat well with the Western block. Western block abhorred democratic India and mostly aligned with dictatorial and Islamist Pakistan whitewashing its sponsoring of terrorism and radicalisation. To counter Russia, the West facilitated the rise of China as an economic giant. During the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the West enabled Pakistan to develop a robust terror and Islamist machinery which continues to challenge global security. In the Western academia, particularly the hallowed precincts of Ivy leagues, the prominent themes of research are caste, right-wing Hindu extremism, LGBTQ and minority rights in India, Hinduism’s anti-women practices such as child marriage. However, when a BJP chief minister of Assam takes action against child marriages, Western media condemns it as a violation of human rights. Perhaps, because child marriages are rampant in the Muslim society of Assam. When the Modi government passes a law against the archaic and backward Islamic practice of Triple Talaq, he is seen as a reactionary Hindu fanatic. However, Sati and Ghoonghat continue to haunt the Western intellectuals and a cabal of new-age left-leaning feminists. Interestingly, they always forget that the practice of Sati was developed in response to Muslim invaders’ humiliation of royal Rajput ladies and treatment as war booties after winning the territory. Western media outlets find the Modi government’s citizenship amendment laws (CAA/NRC) purported to provide relief to non-Muslim minorities from Islamist persecution in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a matter of great concern and an attack on the existence of Muslims in India. In a blind diatribe against India, one comes across shameless distortion of facts of the provisions of the above-mentioned law. However, they seem to have no objection to the US-based Islamist organisations like IAMC, MAS, CAIR having links to Jamaat ideologues facing war-crime trials in Bangladesh for aiding the Pakistan army in slaughtering civilians in the 1971 war, exercising a heavy influence on USCIRF. Abduction and forced conversion of Hindu girls in Pakistan, untold atrocities in Baluchistan, Qatar and Turkey’s involvement in terror funding, the massacre of Kashmir Pandits, blasphemy killings in India and the beheadings done by the radical Islamist organisations of India such as PFI and Jamaat-i-Islami fail to attract the attention of BBC’s creative team. The recent UK violence against Hindus by the Islamist radicals including a large number of Pak-origin UK citizens regrettably failed to arouse BBC’s creative instincts. Likewise, be it agricultural laws, article 370, the Hijab controversy or action against the radical madrasas, the western media has been irrationally harsh, spiteful and critical of India. However, the West needs to understand that it is a different India that they are engaging. Today India is rediscovering its civilisational legacy and is no more ashamed. Instead, it proudly wears its civilisational identity on its shoulders and displays a firm determination against such hateful propaganda and insults by the vested interests from the western deep state and Islamist lobbies. In India’s public perception, 1947 is seen as a transfer of power from the British to angelized Indians and the young generation sees the current rejuvenation and awakening as the real dawn of independence from the colonial mindset and slavish mentality. In today’s India, a foreign minister publicly adores Lord Hanuman, Rama and Krishna, the prime minister openly displays religious attires, boldly visits temples and Hindu religious events in his official capacity and a Nathpanthi monk becomes a chief minister and is appreciated for his tough stance against criminals, gangsters and Islamist radicals. The social media and communication revolution has punctured the monopoly of the Western media and academia and their Indian allies. Though the process has been more like a social churning without much rigorous evidence-based research work, this chaos and churning is a precursor to the setting of new narratives, and institutions and exploring history again. Also, it needs to be mentioned that such malicious information campaigns emerging from foreign sources coupled with George Soros’ overt and aggressive anti-India rhetoric are largely perceived as attempts to destabilize and uproot Prime Minister Modi from power. Among the intelligence set-up, it is a dominant narrative that such destabilising forces will become more and more active in the wake of the upcoming 2024 elections. They are seen as the redux of Arab Spring and color revolution play book. The western media needs to understand the current government’s robust electoral support is not merely based on populism and Hindutva. Instead, their solid achievements in building strong economy, world’s most advanced digital payments system, robust infrastructure, make-in-India campaigns, defence modernisation and tough stance on national security and terrorism have made Prime Minister Modi immensely popular among the masses, who at this stage do not see any alternative to him, though they do see Yogi Adityanath as his likely successor in the future. Lastly, the West also needs to understand its own weaknesses. It is not at the prime of its power and influence. Faced with the economic crisis, internal social-political crisis due to the rapidly rising clout and influence of Islamic refugees and Islamist organisations, aggressive revisionism and expansionism by Russia in Europe and China’s mammoth geostrategic footprint challenging western supremacy and monopoly over narratives, global economy and institutions, the Western world is facing a sort of existential crisis. Its media outlets like BBC, The Guardian and The NYT are discredited in more than half of the globe i.e., Russia, China, South Asia, West Asia, Latin America and Africa due to their biased and agenda-based reporting. Global capitalism and globalisation are on the backfoot.The decline of religion, history, traditions, and culture has led to confusion, chaos, a search for identity, and questioning and challenging of traditional institutions such as families and marriages. Given this context, if the Western left-liberal media condemns and brands India as a poor democracy, drifting towards dictatorship, then why is the West even fighting the global war of democracy versus dictatorship values symbolised by China? If India is also not a robust democracy, then the West has already lost the battle because then except for a few European countries, there is hardly any democracy left in the world. the Western world needs India and it must realise that the pressure will not work as witnessed in India’s stand in the Russia-Ukraine war. If the West needs India, it needs to engage with the latter on an equal footing and be respectful of its culture, religions, state and democracy. The author is a Cornell University graduate in public affairs, and bachelors from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, is a policy analyst specialising in counterterrorism, Indian foreign policy and Afghanistan-Pakistan geopolitics. Views expressed are personal. 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